Christopher Pinho
July 11, 2012
Professor Dwight Kiel
POT3204Progressive reform in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s in the United States took place to fix socially corrupt environments throughout the U.S. government and economy that was due to the quickly expanding industrial economy. Reformers had many different goals but generally claimed that big business and government were taking advantage of the American people rather than serving them, much like the problems we are having today. Political machines were creating monopolies holding control over industries preventing free enterprise throughout the economy. Political machines are extremely powerful organizations with unlimited resources that are linked to political parties that can heavily influence and sometimes-even control the government. Progressives eliminated the widespread corruption by exposing and undercutting the corporation to the American public as well as implementing pieces of legislation that discontinued the problem. Many people led efforts to reform local government, public education, medicine, finance, insurance, industry, railroads, churches, and many other areas. Some of the most important pieces of legislation led by the progressives were the Food and Drug Act, the Interstate Commerce Act, prohibition and the 18th Amendment, and the Sherman Antitrust Act. The Pure Food and Drug Act was inspired by Upton Sinclair’s investigative report on the Chicago Meat Packing industry. In the book The Jungle, based on a true story tells the tale of a Lithuanian immigrant working in a meat packing plant. The story highlights the mistreatment of the average worker by other employees and all of the wealthier parts of society. The mistreatment of the workers and the disgusting and inhumane conditions in the novel shocked readers everywhere and eventually led to the Pure Food and Drug Act. The Pure Food and Drug Act was a United States federal law that was passed in 1906. Under the law meat products...

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The Progressive Movement was a movement that came about due to changes in society after the Civil War. The Movement was a political response to industrialization and social imperfection. The Progressives were able to bring about successful reform in the areas of political and social reform, women’s suffrage, and worker and child labor. The black movement was not considered part of the Progressive Movement, because so many people consider that it was a limitation of the Progressives.
The goal of Progressives in the political reform was to make the government more democratic. They made many structural changes in city government, such as hiring managers and administrators instead of having mayors. Electoral reforms were starting to be made by the Progressive Movement like stopping secret balloting, which led to the percent of voters going down. The political machines could no longer control the outcome of elections. Political machines had controlling the elections for many years but now because of electoral reforms, the elections were fair. Teddy Roosevelt believed in the direct election of U.S. senators, instead of by indirect vote through what he believed was an untrammeled electoral college. He thought the senators should be elected...

...At the turn of the 19th century a new political party rose and that whole era was named the Progressive Era. This party based its decision on what is right for the people and not big businesses in the economic world. Two major leaders and Presidents of the United States, of this time were Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. Though both men contributed so much while in office, which one had the greater impact? Even though their achievements are equal in most areas, Wilson took the cake with his actions to exempt unions from being prosecuted as trusts.
Roosevelt entered office because the current President, McKinley, got assassinated. His personal idea of what a president should do in office is that he should lead the executive department AND set the legislative agenda for Congress. The thing that people remember Roosevelt most by is his Square Deal. The deal favored neither business nor labor. He applied this rule to a coal strike where the coal miners went on strike in 1902. Since, winter was around the corner Roosevelt was worried for the public's safety of heat so he called the mines owners and union leaders to the white house. At the meeting the owners would not give into the demands until the President threatened he would take the mines over with federal troops. The owners agreed to the conditions set by the union leader, but still did not recognize unions. Roosevelt's next big act was his Trust - Busting. He was one of the first Presidents to really...

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The ProgressiveReform Movement !
The modern America that society enjoys today pays homage to the reforms of the
progressive era. Numerous positive changes occurred during this time through the
efforts of progressive reformers, however, the most important social, economic, and
political reforms were as followed: ﬁnalizing the right's of women to vote, improvement
in products, and the governments new way of regulating growing businesses and
outlooks on government. Among those who beneﬁted from the reforms were middleclass white women, consumers, and local, state, and national politics. Collaboratively,
this era represented a time of improvement in American society by working toward
achieving the long-term goal of equality and promising growth. !
Although women had been ﬁghting for their rights for nearly half a century by this
era, a rise in the efforts from larger more powerful groups presented itself once again
before the government granting women the right to vote. “A new generation of women’s
rights leaders came together in the suffrage movement.” 1 This reform had every
intention of creating a more humanitarian society for the growing nation. It also brought
on many changes for society. It “inspired American activists to develop new tactics and
1
Jacqueline Jones et al., Created Equal: a History of the United States, Fourth ed....

...By the turn of the century, a reform movement had developed within an array of groups and individuals with a common desire to improve life in the industrial age. Their ideas and work became known as Progressivism or the belief that changes in society were badly needed and that government was the proper agency for correcting social and economic ills. Starting up around when Theodore Roosevelt became president and lasting though World War 1, America went through many changes. New reform organizations, laws, and amendments continually shaped this era for better or for worse. During the Progressive Era, many reformers were able to successfully create reform at a national level; however, the benefits of the federal government’s actions were more strongly felt economically and even politically rather than socially.
Americans were beginning to believe it was their duty to start action in order to see change. This frame of mind had to do with the philosophy of pragmatism. John Dewey, one of the leading advocates, defined “truth” in a way that Progressives found appealing: good and the true cannot be known in the abstract and fixed ideals, people should take a practical approach to morals and knowledge. Progressive thinkers adopted this philosophy because it enabled them to challenge fixed notions that stood in the way of reform.
However to act, citizens first must be informed....

...Wilson's 'New Freedom,' were both programs of reform. Roosevelt covered more areas of reform than Wilson (who focused mainly on economy), and was more of a progressive than Wilson was. As a governor and the first president of the era, Roosevelt set a terrific example of what a president of this time should do. 'Progressing' from bad, and implementing various reforms to do so defined the era. These two programs are comparable in the areas of antitrust, tariff, and labor reform. Though Wilson seemed to have many more acts in each category, mostly economic), he only acknowledged these few areas, unlike Roosevelt who acknowledged a whole array of areas such as labor, economy, politics, consumer protection, and environmental conservation.
The Progressive Era was the time period after the depression of the 1890s and before World War I. During this time the United States was going through a period of social change and political tumult. The American Society embarked on a journey of many reforms as a response to the diverse tensions and pressures presented by industrialization, urban growth, and ethnic tension. The roots of this reform clearly lay in the depression of the 1890s (1893 to 1897). The depression dramatized the problems in society, and raised the possibility of more violent upheavals if reform was not instituted. Major areas needing...

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DBQ #1
Progressives are American people who are convulsed by the reform movement and the group is ethnically and racially diverse. Progressives would wage war on monopolies, corruption, and inefficiency and the injustice of social life. Progressives do not want to remedy the systems rather that destroy it. Reformers of the progressive era and the federal government during this era are effective in bringing about reform at the national level due to the establishment of many Amendments and acts along with the presidential decisions in favor of the progressive movement. Although there are some hindrance during the reform movement, the successes overcomes the hindrance.
Progressives thrive for reform, and President Roosevelt supported much of the progressive movement. One main issue that America had during that time was fraud. There were numerous rich men within the senate that it was nicknamed “The Millionaire Club.” Thus, direct election of US senators became a popular subject for progressives. As President Roosevelt wrote in his stump speech, “Senators should be elected by direct vote of the people Instead of indirectly through the various legislatures,” (Document D). This established the 17th Amendment which provided for direct election of US senators. This would eliminate...

...Progressive Essay
During an era of great change with the development of great cities and businesses and the establishment of overseas empires, problems arose because many citizens did not reap the benefits of these changes. Progressive reformers worked to correct the flaws in government and to improve social equality. Progressivism is characterized by the overall feeling that the government must play a role to solve social problems and to restore not only the American society, but its values and institutions as well. The success of progressivism is owed much to the publicity generated by the muckrakers who detailed the horrors of poverty, dangerous factory conditions, and urban slums. There was corruption is every facet of life, political, economic, social, and environmental injustices were felt by majority of citizens and many reforms were created that addressed these issues.
There were many economic problems during this time because of the immense amount of power that big business had over the entire country. Big business formed trusts and merged smaller companies under one large control. One percent of the population held 90% of the populations wealth. Problems occurred because big monopolies destroyed competition by raising prices and controlling everything. This was a huge problem for the consumer because it created unfair profits that the customers were not able to afford and the high-priced objects were the...

...Progressive DBQ
The Progressive movement that occurred during the late 1800s and early 1900s was movement focused on reforming the corruption of big business in America and improving society as a whole. Three major issues that Progressives worked to improve upon were child labor, expanding democracy, and improving working conditions. These issues affected the common man and laborer, and the calls for reform were directed towards helping such people. Through the introduction of new laws, acts, and bureaus, such as the Federal Children’s Bureau and Elkins and Hepburn Acts, the Progressive reformers reached their goals in helping lessen child labor, expand democracy, and improve working conditions.
A major concern of the Progressives was harsh child labor and the debilitating effects of it. Due to the struggle of many families during the 1800s, parents would often have their children work alongside them in factories in order to intake an extra income. This meant that children were not educated as they were working instead of going to school, and they were paid less than adults and given dangerous jobs that the larger adults could not do. Many children were often injured by the machines they were working on if not fatally wounded, and their families could not do anything about this because they had signed agreements that the businesses were not reliable for any faults (doc#3a). In order to...